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5 Types of Facebook Contests You Should Know

If you are among the more than 1 billion people that actively spend time on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve come across Facebook contests from pages that you liked, promoted through advertising or shared by one of your friends. A Facebook contest isn’t something new, it has been used by many businesses to reach new audience, build trust and loyalty, source for new data and many more.

Today I want to cover some of the types of Facebook contests that you can organize on Facebook through third party apps. Different third party apps have different types of Facebook contests that you can organize.

1. Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes are similar to a lucky draw contest. It is one of the most common and yet most popular Facebook contests that businesses tend to create.

It is also one of the easiest contests to join. All we need to do is simply insert our name and email addresses and it would be included as an entry.

To take it up a notch, platforms like Binkd has a feature that allows participants to share the contest on their social networking profiles to increase their entries. Let’s say a contestant shared a link on Twitter and three or their friends decided to join the contest, then that means their entry in the contest would increase by three.

2. Photo Contest

A facebook photo contest is a contest that requires fans to upload a photo. This contest can be held in various ways. You could ask your fans to submit their photos based on:

Your products

A theme

Eg: New York, Happiness, Green, Animals

A photo of you

Eg: When you were young, your best smile

3. Video Contest

Similar to a Facebook photo contest, a video contest allows fan to submit videos based on a theme selected by you. Video contests tend to have lower entries compared to other contest as a video would require more commitment or more effort compared to other contests – sometimes even for less rewarding rewards. As such the appeal of the contest may be limited to a select group of people.

However, here are a couple of ideas on how businesses have successfully implemented this type of contest:

Use video contest to get people to submit reasons why they should win your course or how your course can help them change their life.

Use video contest to get people to submit reasons why your business should hire them.

One such company that is doing that very effectively all over the world is MindValley. Jobseekers that are looking for positions in the company are required to upload a video cover letter on Youtube titled MindValley Cover Letter. While this is not a contest per se, but because of its similar competitive nature and the fact that these video submissions (entries) lead to securing a job (rewards), the concept is naturally interchangeable. Click the videos below to see creative entries from different people in different parts of the world:

4. Word Contest

A word contest or essay contest is a contest which fans will simply need to create word-based competition entries. You can use this contest to create a caption contest where you would upload a photo and get people to write a caption to participate.

You can also create an essay contest based on a theme such as asking users to share their experience or memories of a theme.

Here is an example by Pedors, an orthopedic footwear solution for people with problematic feet. The theme of the contest was based on the phrase “walk a mile in their shoes” asking fans to share who’s shoes they would like to talk in and why.

I particularly like this contest not only because of its interesting theme but also because it relates to the message of the brand.

5. Challenge Contest

A challenge contest is a contest where participants perform tasks to gain points. Each point is considered an entry and the more entries you have the greater the chance of winning.

The Challenge contest also gives you other challenges and chances to win once you have entered.

Sweepstakes and challenge contests tend to do very well among the other types. The reason why these have the most entries is due to the barriers of entry. To enter a challenge contest or sweepstakes, a fan can simply enter their name and email address to participate. To participate in a video contest, it takes more initiative.

To sum it all up, all of these are great ideas to use for your Facebook contest. Remember to keep the prize interesting and as close to your business as possibly.

What do you think? Have you ran any of these contest before, share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Aaron Lee is an expert in Social Media Contests. Aaron is the social media manager at Binkd.com, a comprehensive social media promotion platform that allows businesses to build and manage digital promotions and contests. Aaron is also the founder and writer at askaaronlee.com.

About Aaron Lee

Aaron Lee is an expert in Social Media Contests. Aaron is the social media manager at Binkd.com, a comprehensive social media promotion platform that allows businesses to build and manage digital promotions and contests. Aaron is also the founder and writer at askaaronlee.com.

Awesome post, Aaron. I had heard about most of these before, but never the challenge contest. I also really like that you put real examples with them. Thanks for sharing! What advice would you give to a business who wants to create a contest but isn’t sure where to start or which type to choose?

Aaron, what I personally appreciated the most was the simplicity of the way you’ve explained the contests. My market is small business and non-profit….often intimidated or overwhelmed with social media aspects… but your article reads…’I can do this!’. Thx! Cier B. Public Relations

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ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in the growing world of social media for business.